GE wins new turbine deal for mega farm
GE Energy has recently won a contract to deliver 101 wind turbines with an installed power capacity of 2.5 MW for the farm which Czech Republic-based energy company CEZ is constructing in Fantanele and Cogealac, Constanta county.
October 2009 - From the Print Edition
GE Energy had already won the first stage of the tender organised by CEZ, consisting in the delivery of an initial 139 turbines for the same 600-MW installed power capacity wind farm.
CEZ’s project is estimated at 1.1 billion Euro and is the largest onshore wind farm to be constructed in Europe. The total cost for purchasing the 240 turbines is estimated at 700 million Euro. “The first stage of its wind farm, located near Fantanele village, is expected to become operational by June 2010,” CEZ’s COO Martin Pacovsky told The Diplomat.
The construction works started last July and, at the beginning of September, seven wind turbines were already completely installed. One turbine is assembled and installed in about two weeks.
The second stage of the project will be operational by the end of 2011. To build a wind farm which spreads over 600 hectares of land, CEZ needed to construct about 130 kilometres of road. The average distance between wind turbines in the wind’s main direction is about 700 metres. “Such a project needs about three years of preparation before the construction can start,” said Pacovsky.
Fantanele and Cogealac are situated in the Dobrogea region, north of Constanta city and about 17 kilometres from the Black Sea.
The project will become operational in stages. The first stage of 347.5 MW will comprise 139 GE turbines with a 100 metre hub height and 99 metre rotor diameters and a 2.5 MW installed power capacity. At present, less than one per cent of Romania’s energy is wind-generated. At the end of 2008, Romania had only a ten-MW installed wind power capacity.
In Romania, CEZ won the privatisation tender for a 51 per cent stake in the largest Romanian electricity distribution company Electrica Oltenia.
Last year the Czechs won a tender for modernising an existing coal-fired power plant in Galati and a construction of a new gas-fired power unit at the same location. CEZ also became a partner with a 9.15 per cent stake in the joint-venture company for construction of reactors 3 and 4 of the nuclear power plant Cernavoda, Constanta. Last year CEZ bought the wind farm project from Continental Wind Partners.